Success stories like Shaina — and those of celebrities like Al Roker and Star Jones — might make bariatric surgery look easy. It’s not. In fact, doctors are so concerned that teens might have unrealistic expectations that they require extensive presurgery evaluation and lifestyle changes to ensure that teens understand the serious risks, are dedicated to overhauling their health, and don’t take the procedure lightly.

Surgery usually requires preliminary weight loss and then a strict postsurgical regimen of dietary changes, vitamins, and exercise. If the teen and his family aren’t fully committed, the results can evaporate quickly or fail to materialize in the first place.

“We worry a lot if we have a child who thinks the surgery is going to be a magic fix,” says Eleanor Mackey, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the Obesity Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, who evaluates young people considering the surgery.

Fat Thanks to Sona S. for the tip!

Surgery is no quick fix for obese teens – CNN.com

The New York Times‘ Economix blog has an interesting post on new research on the “cost per calorie” of different foods and drinks.

The trend is disturbing: Fresh fruits and vegetables have soared in price per calorie over the past 30 years while soda has fallen dramatically in price. Economix notes:

It’s a good illustration of one of the problems with the American diet: unhealthy food is often a lot cheaper than healthy food. … One dollar’s worth of Coke has 447 calories, while $1 of iceberg lettuce has just 16.5. To look at it another way, you would have to spend about $5 to buy 2,000 calories at McDonald’s, $19 to buy 2,000 calories worth of canned tuna and $60 to buy 2,000 calories worth of lettuce.

I eat a lot salad; but I don’t know of anyone who looks to lettuce as a major source of calories. Experts say you’re supposed to get something like four cups of vegetables per day. One cup of shredded lettuce contains six calories. Eating 2,000 calories worth of lettuce per day would mean eating 333 cups of chopped lettuce, which cannot possibly be healthy.

Since most calories are supposed to come from grains anyway, a better comparison is brown rice versus white rice. White rice costs about 2.1 cents per serving, and brown rice costs about 10 cents per serving. That’s a huge percentage difference; but you would have to eat a lot of rice for the difference to amount to more than the price of a Snickers bar per week.

There are a number of reasons for the poor nutritional habits of most people. But is the soaring cost of a serving of lettuce what’s making people fat? I somehow doubt it.

Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!

Is the High Cost of Healthy Food Really the Reason for Poor Nutrition? | Moneyland | TIME.com

Maine grows a lot of potatoes, and one of the state’s two U.S. senators is telling Michelle Obama and the Agriculture Department to let potatoes keep a prized place on school menus.

In a letter to Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe objected to new government recommendations that schools limit servings of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn and green peas to just a cup a week.

Mrs. Snowe said potatoes have more potassium than bananas, and as much fiber as broccoli — two nutrients the government says are lacking in many diets. A medium potato also has 45 percent of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin C, she said.

Mrs. Obama has made school nutrition one of her signature issues as first lady, Mrs. Snow said that should case her to get involved in pushing back against the menu rules. The rules apply only to federally subsidized food, but that usually ends up determining the menus for all students.

Food fight: Senator tells first lady to keep potatoes on school menus – Washington Times